LATEST IN TOBACCO FIASCO: THE ST. LOUIS JUDGES

Missourians may never know why five Missouri Supreme Court judges withdrew from hearing a request by parties seeking to intervene in the state's settlement with tobacco companies. That is because they aren't required to give a reason for their recusals, and none of them did.

Nevertheless, five other state judges have been appointed as replacements to decide Sept. 7 whether the request should be considered by the Supreme Court. Should those five and the two Supreme Court judges who didn't withdraw themselves from the case decide to let the parties enter, those two and the five replacement judges will decide merits of the request by the city of St. Louis, public hospitals and several people who would represent a class of tobacco users to enter the multibillion-dollar settlement.

Supreme Court judges Ronnie L. White and Michael A. Wolff were the only two members of the court who didn't withdraw from hearing the case. Because they did not recuse, one would assume they are the only two judges on the high court who haven't in some way had past dealings with the tobacco companies or those who seek to intervene. Recusals usually occur because of prejudice or personal interests of judges.

The Supreme Court is to consider whether a St. Louis circuit court and then the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis wrongly denied the parties a chance to join the case.

Toward that end, White, who was named temporary chief justice in the matter and appointed all five replacement judges, chose two St. Louis circuit court judges -- Booker T. Shaw of the 22nd Circuit and Sandra Farragut-Hemphill of the 21st Circuit -- and an Eastern District appellate judge in St. Louis -- George W. Draper III -- to serve as replacement judges. The other two judges White chose are both from the state Western District of the Court of Appeals in Kansas City: Harold L. Lowenstein and Thomas H. Newton.

Curious why White, himself of St. Louis and a former city counselor for that city, chose three other judges from St. Louis, particularly judges from courts that already have disallowed intervention by the parties?

The entire tobacco settlement case -- from Attorney General Jay Nixon's hiring outside attorneys to enjoy the fruits of the huge settlement to the Supreme Court judges withdrawing from hearing the intervention matter, and now White loading the court with St. Louis-area judges -- has been handled shabbily. And a ruling upholding those that disallowed intervention by the parties would mean more money for the state.